The present embodiments relate to flow quantification in ultrasound imaging.
Valvular heart diseases are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. The quantification of cardiac volume flows in patients may aid in evaluation of the progression of the disease and in determination of clinical options. However, accurate volume flow measurement remains a significant challenge for cardiologists.
Ultrasound may be used to measure volume flow. Doppler ultrasound is a non-invasive and cost effective method for evaluation of intracardiac blood flow and for assessment of cardiac function. With real-time full volume echocardiography, transthoracic 3D color flow imaging (CFI) for every heartbeat may be acquired without stitching such that both mitral valve and LVOT are covered by the color Doppler region of interest. However, flow velocity aliasing may introduce significant errors in flow quantification using color Doppler data. The velocity ambiguity cannot be overcome just by ultrasound data, especially when true velocity is several multiples of the Nyquist level.